New Renault Twingo, aka smart forfour

New Renault Twingo revealed For those of us following the upcoming 453 fortwo and forfour, Renault revealed their new Twingo today, the car that the new forfour shares a platform with. http://www.undressnewtwingo.com/

Here's an update. I asked the same question on the international smart Facebook page and got this reply:

we haven't taken a decision on the launch of the new smart four-seater in the U.S. yet. We are currently examine the market situation in the U.S. and whether provided that facts of the high costs for homologation of the new smart four-seater which can be justified at the economic level in this market. Many greetings from Pam @ your smart team.

I take that to mean the decision isn't final. If we want to see the forfour sold in North America we need to let smart in Germany and smart USA know. If they don't see any demand for the car, of course they have no reason to pursue sales here.

Of course it isn't a final decision, there are no final decisions in this business. Ask saab & fisker. ;-) for how many years did smart say they had no plans to sell the fortwo in the US?

I think any lobbying needs to be at the dealership level. smart would love to have more sales, they just need the dealers to get on board to generate enough sales to fund the US required mods. nobody at daimler is going to leave money on the table.

every time you go into the dealer to look or for service make it clear to the lead smart person that it would be nice if smart sold a four-seater.

when you ask about the EV at the nationwide launch, mention that you'd be interested in a forfour. when you ask about the smart e-bike, ask about the forfour.

they'll say they know nothing about it, or flat out say no, but that's not important at this stage, it'll be a year or two before they could start selling them here anyway -- make sure they understand that you are talking to them. don't think that the dealership management and smart USA and smart corp doesn't monitor feedback collected at the dealers. tell them that the fiat 500 is too retro, fiat 500L is too big, the mini is becoming grotesque, the spark is uninspired; tell them you are intrigued by the new twingo and are anxious to see the forfour.

even more so, go into a Mercedes dealership that does not carry the smart brand and say you're in the market for a forfour. ask them why they don't carry them?